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Sunday, March 20, 2011

Coconut Layer Cake

I've decided to make my own birthday cake. Since my dear friends Kate and Louie got me a baking book for my birthday, why not make a cake out of there.

So I assembled all the ingredients, then I set them out to warm to room temperature. Apparently, if you do not warm the milk, eggs, and butter to room temperature so that they blend properly.

So the whole process went fine. Though a side note when it says to cool on a wire rack you better do it, because the cake sticks to other surfaces.

Now a little note on frosting. Apparently I cannot make a proper one. I tried this one twice. The first time I poured all of the sugar syrup into the eggs at once. So the second time around I poured it in very slowly. Still I could not get it creamy or to have stiff peaks. I did not want to try a third time because it takes 1.5 cups of sugar for each go. So the nice white ring round the cake that looks nice is all the frosting pouring/dripping off of the cake.

But... No Apologies.

Ingredients:

Cake

1-cup unsalted butter

2-cups sugar

4 large eggs

1 - 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1 - 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 seven ounce package of sweetened shredded coconut

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting

3 egg whites

1 - 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup cold water

1 - 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Garnish

Sweetened, shredded coconut

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease and lightly flour three 9 x 2 inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with wax paper

Cake...

In a large bowl

Cream butter until smooth

Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy

Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition

Combine flours

Combine in four parts, alternating with the milk and the vanilla extract, beating well after each addition